


Vengeance Promised from Darkness

by InterPlanetary_Redacted



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, But he's good, Caring Harry Potter, Cute Relationship Though, Diary Tom Riddle - Freeform, Dumbledore Bashing, Engagement, Good Tom Riddle, Hand fasting, Hermione Granger Bashing, Implied Torture, Kinda, M/M, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Minister for Magic Tom Riddle, Rich Harry, Sirius Black Lives, Spirit Tom Riddle, Spoiled Harry Potter, Still dark, Sugar Baby Harry Potter, Tom Riddle is Caring, Tom Riddle is a Sweetheart, Weasley Bashing, dark-ish Harry, goblet of fire - Freeform, it made sense at the time, just a lil bit tho, ngl, probably, very in love are tom and harry, who knows what would come next
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 04:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21093218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InterPlanetary_Redacted/pseuds/InterPlanetary_Redacted
Summary: Harry slumps in relief before saying his name over and over again like a mantra.“Tom. Tom Tom Tom Tom Tom-” Harry automatically moves his head so it’s facing upwards at the phantom presence of hands at his neck, almost caressing him.And Harry cannot help it, cannot help pushing his magic towards the force lovingly, to the extent that he can feel a ghostly breath on his neck in relief.“Harry,” Tom breathes back, almost inaudible but he’s there and Harry knows it.~~~Kinda typical weasley bashing fic tbh with tomarry that's adorable and sweet more than anything and honestly builds up more than i expected when writing this





	Vengeance Promised from Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Much longer than I thought it would be but whatever, it took me like 3 days to write in total but I've only written it for 3 days over 3 weeks so y'know. I've had this fic on my mind since listening to Queen of Mean by Sarah Jeffreys from Descendants 3. I've not watched the movie or anything but it's a good song. Lyrics are taken from that and incorporated into the dialogue, especially near the end :))))))
> 
> Anyway! Enjoy!

Harry paced back and forth, unable to help the scowl on his face. It was annoying what he was going through right now. They didn’t believe him, and they likely wouldn’t ever believe his lack of want when it comes to participating in the Triwizard Tournament. 

And fine, if they wouldn’t believe him, then he would just ignore them. There was nothing better for him to do unless he wanted to start cursing everybody that brought it up - and frankly that was just too much hassle. 

So who cares if they didn’t believe him anymore? He may not have always followed the rules but he was never cruel about it, always trying to do his very best. 

* * *

Time passed quickly once he decided to ignore the others, he did things that had been on the back of his mind but never did because he was afraid of judgement in its various forms. 

The first thing on the list was getting new clothes, something he had always hesitated with doing because of the way he suspected Ron would react, but he didn’t care anymore. He would get nice clothes, nice dress robes, casual day robes, new boots of dragonhide, with jackets to match. Just thinking about it made him excited and giddy. 

He called Dobby to him and asked him to magically take his measurements before taking out all of the clothes catalogues he had been saving up, along with the Gringotts ‘cheques’ which he would use to pay for everything. Something they had given him without prompting but something he knew you could really only get when you had so much money that you were expected to regularly buy expensive things. 

When he heard more people entering the common room and going to their dorms, he closed the curtains around his bed and set up a one-way silencing charm so they couldn’t hear him but that he could hear them, since the sticking charms around his bed would fool them into thinking he was asleep or something along those lines. 

They scoff and snarl a little at his bed curtains but other than that they don’t say anything once they’re all there, mild grumbling he doesn’t care to listen to, nothing more than the usual really. 

Honestly Harry was just excited to be able to pick out some new clothes and have them within two days at the most. He was looking forward to it so much that he can’t really think about anything else, even if he could be bothered to. 

* * *

The next thing on the list that he was looking forward to was going back down to the Chamber of Secrets, because he had wanted to since he first set foot down there. 

It was so large and despite being called a Chamber, it was naive to think that there wasn’t more to it than simply the large hall, if that was where Slytherin spent most of his time - even though others had been down there over the years he doubts that they would have removed all the things that Slytherin had put down there, even in the beginning. Updating them seemed like a smarter move, which begs the question of where everything else would be. 

So, he gets out of bed the next morning, goes to the kitchens for breakfast as well as getting food packed for lunch thanks to them, and he makes his way down there, invisibility cloak clasped around his neck and hood pulled over his face to hide him completely. 

Getting down there is easy, especially when it appears as though Myrtle is hiding elsewhere. 

The bottom of the tunnel is disgusting still and he determines to clean it at some point. 

There were supposed to be classes today but honestly he doesn’t care that he’ll be missing them, since he doesn’t want to be up there anyway. 

He never asked for any of the attention they’ve given him since day one, so the fact they call his name for disdain or acts of heroism don’t really bother him now he’s come to the conclusion to ignore it. 

It takes a while of investigating, after paying his respects to the deceased basilisk - regardless of if he killed her or not. 

He takes the time to investigate before finding the entrance, which he then has to speak parseltongue to. 

The entire time he feels like he is being watched, but it doesn’t feel like when Dumbledore or the other teachers do it so he dismisses it. Nobody else would be able to get down here anyway so he doesn’t let it bother him. 

He takes time to investigate each room as he passes it, determined to look through everything he can, even if he knows he’ll have more time later on to do it as he pleases. 

He glances briefly into the study/workroom he finds, but doesn’t go much further since he wants to save it for last. The library he investigates briefly, getting an understanding of what can be found there in each section and how informative everything will be, but not needing anything at the moment, though he makes a note of some more remarkable books he would like to read at some point. 

There is a bedroom with a large bed and wardrobes and more clothes than he knows what to do with - even though he knows they won’t fit him and they’re out of style anyway. Still, it’s a shock to see how many clothes are down there. 

Although, some of them definitely seem to be more recent than others. 

(Meaning Tom Riddle, of course, Voldemort, and it doesn’t really surprise Harry that the man - boy, at the time - left clothing down here if he loved it so much.)

When touching the clothes, simply running his fingers along them, he feels almost like a slight breeze wrapping around him, except it makes him feel warm, comforted, and he doesn’t know what to do about it but he likes it, and it makes him smile softly. 

There isn’t much to be said about the room on the whole, aside from the fact it needs to be cleaned, but that’s an easy enough task to set himself to do - especially with magic, so it only takes him 20 minutes or so to get rid of the dust, neaten everything in the room, and ensure that all the surfaces are polished while the bed sheets smell so fresh and clean now. 

He can’t help but grin at his handiwork, before practically skipping out of the room. 

Unsure if he should be surprised or not to find a portrait of Salazar Slytherin himself, he simply apologizes to the man about killing his beloved pet. 

While he was sad about it, he understood to an extent the situation that Harry was in and did not blame him for it. 

Realistically he could not anymore than he could blame his own Heir for the blunder they both made in the chamber a year and a half prior, if that amount of time. 

For the rest of the afternoon, he listened to the stories Salazar would tell, enjoying them and laughing occasionally. The man wasn’t bad or evil by any meaning of the word by Harry’s opinion, and maybe it was due to the fact that a lot of the stories were twisted once he left the castle, but Harry thought even the accurate ones weren’t as horrible as people actually seemed to believe them to be. 

He snacked throughout the day as he listened, eating his way through various fruits and pastries that the elves had packed for him that morning. 

Before dinner he went on to explain to Salazar, when asked, about his life, his so-called story. 

The presence, which by now he had established was not Salazar was still there, still comforting around him, and he wondered if it would follow him around the castle. He hoped it would, it made him feel calm and safe. Maybe his temper would be kept under wraps because of it. He wouldn’t bet on it though. 

When he finally had to make an appearance for the day, he didn’t know what he expected, but getting multiple detentions for missing his classes and overall going missing throughout the day were not on the list of things he imagined. 

Yet it didn’t surprise him. Especially coming from Snape despite the fact he didn’t have Potions at all today, and instead he rolled his eyes before going to the Gryffindor table and sitting apart from everybody - by choice, he made it clear to everybody in the hall when he sat at the very end of the bench close to the doors of the Great Hall, where nobody at all was sat. He made no comments about his absence and didn’t bother to fill his plate, because he didn’t really want anything on the table that was being served. 

Unsurprisingly, if asking Harry at least, he didn’t like to eat a lot of the foods at Hogwarts simply because they reminded him of being at the Dursleys. Even if he didn’t have to cook this particular cottage pie, he could still remember all the times that he had been forced to do so by his so-called relatives, and instead, was waiting to see if any fruit would be had for dessert. 

Luckily some appeared on his plate as a direct result of the house elves, Dobby at least, knowing what he would have wanted, which is a nice thought as he made his way through the slices of banana and chunks of strawberry on his plate along with pomegranates. He drank milk like he always did, probably an excess of it - like he usually did, and simply waited for what he was expecting as a delivery. 

The owl arrived as most of the students had already left, a small amount only still trickling out, thanking it kindly and stroking it several times before allowing it to fly off again, having taken the package from it’s leg so that it was unshrunk, but knowing even then that the box had featherweight charms on it and was heavily expanded on the inside to make for easy transport and storage. 

He didn’t even acknowledge Mcgonagall when she told him to attend detention with her for the evening within an hour, simply walking out of the hall and into an alcove where he could put his cloak on and move down to the chamber to be alone once more. 

It was very easy to get down there, before he called Dobby to him so that the elf could retrieve all of his belongings from Gryffindor, which the elf did very swiftly as they were already in place once he actually arrived in the Chamber’s bedroom. 

He took some parchment and sent a missive to the goblins saying that he wanted an appointment with them so that he could find out all the information that he was supposed to know already, requesting that they have all of the books ready that he could take away and read once they were done and to send a portkey with the letter so that he could leave Hogwarts but also arrive _ back _ in Hogwarts once they were done. 

Dobby took the letter to the bank, and when he arrived back he brought Hedwig with him from the Owlery without even needing to be asked. 

Salazar had told him about the other exit into the forest which is what Adalaid had used to get her food when she was awake, so he had shown the exit to Hedwig. 

Salazar had also told him about the various other places that were more hidden in the Chamber, such as Adalaid’s nest, which - had they not been broken - would contain her time-frozen eggs, which Salazar had put under stasis not long after he left and rarely told any of the Heirs about when they were down here, Tom being the first in over 250 years before he was even born. 

“They could not be trusted with such responsibility, or at least not to be sold or taken advantage of. Tom said he would take one before he left Hogwarts and then, as you’ve told me, he was never able to come back down to retrieve one before he left,” he had explained when Harry asked, which he understood to an extent, although the conversation had continued. 

“I am not your Heir though, so why would you trust me with this?” 

“You are very closely connected with my Heir, and I need no body or true magic to see it is so,” he said. “You also have many of the traits that I founded my own House upon, and even admitted to myself that you felt you belonged there more and more after you convinced the hat to put you in Gryffindor.” 

Harry had grumbled slightly, but that was the end of the conversation before he had gone off to try and actually find the eggs in Adalaid’s nest. 

There were three eggs, and he only took one of them from the stasis charm, not knowing how he would truly cope with trying to raise three basilisks otherwise. 

Now he would just need a toad. He frowned, knowing he could easily just ask Dobby to retrieve Trevor from Neville, but not really wanting to worry the boy about his missing pet. Instead he asked Dobby to retrieve a toad from somewhere for him, even if that meant going to a pet store. 

Thankfully it didn’t. 

* * *

When the portkey to Gringotts came, he immediately left with only a word to Salazar, promising to be back soon, hopefully with more information about his accounts since he truly did not know anything more than that he was rich. 

Dobby was tasked with putting away his new clothing items once he finished setting up an area ideal for the toad to incubate his new basilisk, and then he disappeared with a pop, barely managing to steady himself on time when landing. 

Multiple goblins were there as apparently this was an important meeting concerning multiple of their accounts due to how many Harry was due to inherit. 

As it turned out, Harry was technically one of the richest people in the world, never mind Britain, and that was before converting the money into pounds which, due to the conversion rate, would immediately make him five times more rich in the muggle world. 

It was an insane amount of money that he had, and he was given multiple folders containing his vault details, before they moved onto more important things: theft from his accounts. 

While he was surprised at the fact that Dumbledore had been stealing from him, he didn't really know what he expected from him when looking back on his behaviour regarding Harry, so he vowed to make him pay. 

As well as those that the money was being given to in some cases. 

There was a large list of people: Molly, Ronald, and Ginevra Weasley to start with, followed by Hermione Granger, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks (who?), the _ Dursleys _ (and Harry was going to kill them for that, as well as everything else they had ever put him through), as well as Dumbledore’s own accounts and some ‘organisation’ called Order of the Phoenix. 

Harry also took note of all the items that had been taken too, though it was mostly jewellery it seemed. 

“Due to the fact he appointed himself as your guardian, illegally might I add, we have not been able to stop him from thieving despite the fact we all knew it was false due to the fact it would have caused more trouble with the ministry than it was worth at the time due to the fact you had been orphaned and people trusted Dumbledore to do what was in your benefit and whatnot. Due to this, we simply kept a record of everything that went on with your multiple accounts because we knew one day you would come to us and it would work out better for us in the long run once we could do all of the same actions legally and with your support, proving him to be a liar and a fraud, on top of being a thief.” All the goblins, including Griphook who had just spoken, grinned sharply, knowing that Harry would agree to let them do anything to take his revenge on Dumbledore. 

“Very well. Fifteen percent of all the galleons that have been taken and distributed, including their compensation,” Harry put out there, knowing that the goblins would want more, and knowing that he would have to bargain to get his own way. 

“Twenty-five percent,” the Black goblin growled out. 

“Seventeen percent _ and _thirty-five percent of the profits that a basilisk corpse would bring in. I have some requests about some materials of the basilisk, but once they have been taken, the remaining can be sold by Gringotts and you can have thirty-five percent of the profits,” Harry explained, causing all of the goblins to grin that blood-thirsty grin again, and they quickly agreed. 

Harry would still get the majority of the profits on top of several newly made items that he required, especially for the tournament and beyond - having decided it would be best to participate as much as he can in the tournament because why not. If he doesn’t then he may lose his magic? Harry isn’t too sure about that but it was better to be safe than sorry in this situation. 

The goblins went on to explain that there was a contract written and signed by Dumbledore and Molly Weasley that meant he would marry the Weasley daughter, something that made Harry metaphorically throw up, if not almost literally, and so he went about having that contract destroyed very quickly and easily. 

They handed him folders about his properties and anything that had occurred with them, such as their current states, the house elves living there, as well as a small one-time portkey that could be used to reach the property and only by him since he had to apply his blood. Arrangements could be made about further visits once he had inspected the property. 

Finally they agreed that two goblins would go now, with him back to the Chamber so that they could retrieve the basilisk body, so he gave them a comprehensive list of everything that he wanted to do with the skin and the teeth, plus storage of small amounts of venom for the future just in case. Something in his mind simply prompted that, though he wasn’t quite sure where it came from. 

They took his measurements and assured him that the outfit he wanted would grow with him for several years until he reached his full height. 

It wasn’t a hard thing to see that they were basically salivating over the chance to get their hands on what he was offering them. Not to mention the multiple skins that the basilisk had shed which had not yet decomposed. 

They also gave him multiple ward stones with their strongest wards for less than half the price, as well as several books which he would be needing so that he could learn everything about the wizarding world and its culture that he needed to know now and in the future. 

He was looking forward to being able to do this, what with all the free time he was going to have from now on since he refused to attend his classes. More work would get done down in the chamber anyway, and he could still technically hand in homework when he felt like it if he really wanted to, and could learn about the class topics still since he had his books. But Salazar was a much more competent teacher than any he had experienced in Hogwarts and he was looking forward to being taught by such an intelligent man, even if he were only a portrait now. 

* * *

There wasn’t much to be done once he got back and had shown them both the corpse and shed skins, all of which they portkeyed away individually to Gringotts, which was fine with Harry, before thanking him for the business and simply leaving. 

Harry went to Salazar and heard the equivalent of a bedtime story before making his way to the bedroom and falling asleep in his new pyjamas. 

* * *

Life moved on, he stayed in the chamber, had his meals brought to him by Dobby, ensured that Dobby knew to stay away from teachers, would hand in an assignment each week to the teachers which, once marked, Dobby would bring back to him with none of them really being any the wiser, since apparently none of them suspected the house elves capable and simply thought he was hiding under his invisibility cloak, which apparently Dumbledore had apparently seen fit to spread around knowledge of. 

Luckily, thanks to a ritual Salazar taught him, he was able to make people forget all about his cloak for the most part - including Snape and Dumbledore to an extent. 

It was like obliviate apparently, according to Salazar, except it does not need to be done in person and directly on the person, simply anybody with the knowledge would forget unless he otherwise named them, so he included Sirius and Pettigrew to not forget, but didn’t care about Lupin - if he was being paid from his own vaults with knowledge from Dumbledore then he deserved to not know. 

Between lessons from Salazar, learning about his estates and accounts, and occasionally doing work for his classes, Harry also wrote a letter to Sirius, explaining vaguely that he was still in the school, but that he didn’t care for the way people had reacted, including the teachers, so decided to stay away. He was safe, and had even gone to Gringotts to learn more about his accounts - acting more naive than he really should have to the man but he didn’t really feel guilty about it. He said that if Sirius wanted to speak more, then he would have to allow Dobby to bring him to where he was in the castle and that was the end of that, otherwise he would hear nothing else than the occasional update that he was safe. But no information would be revealed. 

Dobby informed him that the man asked for thirty minutes to think, but that he swore on his magic to say nothing to anybody during this time regardless of his choice in the end, and also that there were dragons in the forest that were being tended for, which had been called in for the Tournament. 

Sirius called for Dobby within 17 minutes and was brought to the chamber 30 seconds later, allowing Harry to go into more detail about everything he had found out once the man had sworn he would say nothing. 

Harry cared very much for Sirius, theoretically, but he would have had little remorse cutting the man out of his life if he truly needed to. 

Thankfully, there was no need as Sirius promised to say nothing and to support Harry. 

“Even if you do join- Voldemort,” there was a slight hesitation before he said the name but he didn’t stutter it or murmur it or flinch. “I will be there for you because you deserve it, and if the man turns out to not want to kill either of us, then that’s fine, but I will not fight for the Light or Dumbledore regardless of what you choose,” the man promised. And Harry hugged him so tightly they both thought that his ribs would break, since he was still quite thin. 

Salazar let them use the spare bedroom for Sirius to stay in so that he could get healthier in the meantime, and Harry could have some proper human interaction rather than simply a house elf, goblins, and a portrait of a man dead for over a millennia at this point. 

Once Sirius was full of food and ready to sleep, in some pyjamas that they had found in Harry’s room that would fit the man, Harry made his own way to bed, stopping to say goodnight to Salazar before collapsing onto his bed, feeling slightly giddy but very warm, almost like he was being hugged once more but it felt less solid than a human. His cheek being caressed was the last sensation he felt before falling asleep, his stomach feeling giddy at the sensation. 

* * *

It was only the morning of the first task that his request from the goblins arrived: sleek sage-green robes made of basilisk skin, fresh from the body rather than shed, regardless of whether both were in great condition or not thanks to the stasis charm on the whole of the Chamber keeping them in good condition since regardless of the time passing. 

While they were sage-green they did seem to change colour in the light, brighter emerald green and dark sapphire blues being the other colours that showed up in the iridescence. 

They fit snugly but comfortably, showing off sleek lines of his body without making him appear to be emaciated in any way - since he knew he still needed to gain weight before his body looked truly healthy. 

The shirt he would be wearing was a cream colour, it tied at the front and if it had had puffed sleeves would be reminiscent of a pirate shirt he thinks. 

When it comes to the jacket of the robes, the main body went down to his waist, meeting the high waist of his matching trousers - comfortable and he could move in them, but they appeared very tight from appearance alone once he tried them on. His jacket would zip all the way up to his high collar if he so wanted it, and it flared out at his hips and made an almost skirt-like appearance as it went down to his knees like that, however it was relatively stiff and didn’t flare too much as he spun in various directions. He looked good, and quite frankly professional more than anything. He wouldn’t be expected to wear something like this and he hadn’t been left a uniform in any way, nor did he supposedly know what the champions were wearing. 

(He did, but that was besides the point - they were never told what they couldn’t wear and so his fire-proof basilisk robes were technically allowed since there were no rules against it.)

His boots were also made from basilisk skin, however they had clearly undergone more treatment than his other clothes to make them softer and more malleable when it came to both wearing and creation initially, though he was assured that they would have the same effectiveness as his jacket and pants. 

Sirius was talking with Salazar in the study once he entered, both of them stopping once he came in to show them what he was wearing. 

“Yes, that is acceptable, however, there is one more thing you need,” Salazar intoned, a serious voice but it was soft also, almost sad in how he spoke. “Go into your room and open the top drawer of the dresser and speak the words ‘open, for the Queen’ in parseltongue, then you will find an expanded storage section within there and a box, bring it in here before opening.”

Harry did as he was told, bringing the obvious jewellery box into the room and setting it on his lap as he sat before the man he had grown to think of as a grandfather figure almost, much more than Dumbledore could ever hope to be. 

Salazar nodded for him to open it after a moment, and Harry’s breath caught when inside he found what could only be a Slytherin heirloom. 

It was silver, “Goblin silver,” Salazar corrected as if knowing his thoughts. “It is a piece of jewellery specifically for somebody who is not the Heir, but a...counterpart, almost. And you are, Tom’s counterpart.” As if to agree, the comforting presence that was always around in the chamber and even when he stepped out into the forest when he wanted fresh air but didn’t really want to leave and go anywhere else, surrounded him, warming him and comforting him, and Harry felt as though emotions which were not his own were surrounding him, feeling proud of him and yet so encouraging and comforting. 

It hadn’t taken him too long to realise once he was really down here so much, that Tom’s spirit wasn’t really destroyed, just horrifically weakened and unable to take a physical presence once more. 

“Wear this, and you represent me. You represent the Slytherin line. Not the school house, though I doubt they would even know what this means in reality, since so few people know of it these days.” 

“It is beautiful,” Harry finally managed to say, though it was barely above a whisper. Salazar apparently managed to hear though as he smiled softly at Harry and nodded. 

Taking it out of the box to take a closer look, he held it at his eye-level and looked at it closely. It was made up of one main band that went around his head, though the two ends didn’t connect at the back, and starting just past where his temples would be three more thin bands of goblin silver came and overlapped the first simply, not extravagant, but leading to a point which would rest on his forehead. Interspersed somewhat were emeralds, small ones that were not of obvious significance past their colouring, but it was beautiful. 

Carefully, he placed it on and felt the magic adjust to his own sizing to be more comfortable. 

“Nobody else has worn this I believe since I had it made and planned to give it to my wife. She was my equal, my counterpart in every way, and I have never revealed it to anybody before as there has never been anybody worth giving it to. You are not directly of my line, but you are still a parselmouth, you are still powerful, you are Tom’s counterpart and his obvious equal in every way. This, you deserve. And you will honour the Slytherin line should you continue to wear it.” The words were spoken quietly, but the room had already been silent before, and the words made tears spill down Harry’s face at the kindness he felt coming from the man in the portrait, and he wished he could hug him all the more at times like this, since they actually seemed to happen fairly often surprisingly. 

“I will make you proud today, I swear it,” Harry says, once wiping his face and stares determinedly at the portrait and the portrait only. 

“I know you will child,” he replies. And by this point it’s time for Harry to leave for the first time in weeks now, properly, and be seen by people. 

He has a rough idea what people thought about him from Dobby’s reports - most people thought that he was a liar and a cheat, and then a coward for disappearing the way he did; others thought that his disappearance was caused by the amount of people bullying him within the first few days after the draw after he denied having any involvement, but this was a very small amount of people, less than a dozen really, so while he appreciated them, he didn’t pay them much thought. 

While he thought that the badges Malfoy created were rather ingenious, the other boy was also a coward for doing it since he wasn’t even there to see the results - regardless that he knew them anyway. 

He was looking forward to this today, to some extent, but he was mostly excited to see people’s reactions to him. He put his firebolt just outside the chamber’s second exit in the forest in case he needed it so it would be easier to reach him, a backup if speaking reasonably with the dragon fails. 

Dobby apparated both him and Sirius-as-Padfoot into the far corner of the champions tent, making sure that they weren’t seen for several moments while he watched them decide to continue the proceedings without him, something which made him smirk slightly since it took barely thirty seconds for them to decide this. 

His hood was up on his jacket by the goblins, something which could be there when he wanted it and otherwise disappeared with a small word, and it covered half his face yet could still see out of despite that thanks to goblin magic. 

With Sirius, as it got to the third contestant - Cedric - to choose his dragon, Harry stepped forward with Sirius at his side, calm but clearly ready for attack, and the people in the tent were apprehensive of him, instantly drawing their wands when they saw him, barely lowering them as he removed his hood and laughed slightly at their actions. 

“You must really not have faith in Hogwarts to keep out those who should not be here, if that is your first reaction,” he told them, speaking mostly to the adults in the room who should realistically know better - but, then again, a troll had gotten in during his first year, and a basilisk had petrified people in his second, dementors on the quidditch pitch in his third and this for his fourth year; he really shouldn’t be surprised. 

“Mr Potter,” Bagman breathed, putting his wand away and prompting the others to do the same with this action. “We weren’t thinking you would join us.” 

Harry shrugged. “It was not compete and lose my magic, or compete,” he told them, before turning sarcastic. “Excuse me for not taking that risk,” he rolled his eyes, causing Bagman to cough slightly and look away while Harry smiled at them with narrowed eyes. 

“I’m afraid the other Champions have already chosen their dragon for the first task, I’m to assume you missed the explanation?” 

“We have to retrieve a golden egg from a nesting dragon’s nest,” he told them, raising an eyebrow. “Frankly I think that is cruel to the dragons but I’m not going to be the one getting burnt or my head eaten in the end, so what does it matter to me,” he told them rhetorically. 

“Yes, well, Mr Potter, you have got the Hungarian Horntail,” Bagman continues. 

“Right,” Harry says, taking the bag from the man before it can be offered, and he reaches in to pull it out, and it’s hissing and snarling at everything from his palm. 

**Calm down, little one, I shall look after you,** he tells the poor thing. **I will have to leave you for a short time but I shall return,** he continues, before placing it on Sirius’ back. 

He waits while the other champions face their dragons, and he finds himself not scared at all as he chats to the dragon on Sirius’ shoulder - the dragon having to move once the dog sat down, Harry doing the same on the floor while waiting for his turn. 

* * *

His ‘battle’ is short and conclusive, with him walking right up to the nesting mother and speaking to her calmly, even if there is a short amount of panic from himself when she comes down to eye-level with him, continuing to speak in a rough voice as she debates with him over the honesty of his statements, before she agrees to let him into her nest for a couple of minutes at the most, and then he leaves with the golden egg, wishing her the best with destroying anybody that might try to deceive her in the future. 

He walks away grinning, holding the golden egg in one hand as he makes his way back to the tent, putting his hood up as he goes to disguise his smirk at the silence from everybody, including the judges, who haven’t even bothered to give him a score due to their shock - and Harry almost chuckles at the shock that the dragon tamers are going to get when they try and calm down his new friend down when the time comes in, oh, two or so minutes. 

Harry disappears fairly quickly to make his way back to Sirius and his new small friend, and then Dobby quickly takes them back to the chamber where he can decide later what to do with the egg. 

They talk late into the evening, all four of them - Harry, Salazar, Sirius, and Ada - the small dragon named for Salazar’s basilisk - with food being brought for Sirius and Harry as usual from Dobby, not always from the school kitchens depending on if they want something different, and apparently Sirius asked for a cheesecake for them to share so he went out to get them two, one each, that they could eat instead of anything else, though Harry eats slower and eats fruit between slices where instead Sirius just eats the whole cheesecake with a fork and takes bites as he makes his way through it directly. 

That night as he goes to sleep he swears he can hear the words “Well done, Harry,” whispered to him from a semi-familiar voice he has not heard in over a year now, and it both scares him and comforts him. 

Harry continues with his usual routine once they have a short break as a reward for his victory - even if it was expected, and even if it was Salazar who told him that he could easily speak to the dragon no matter what dialect they speak. 

Still, it’s pleasant, simply playing around with magic for no reason other than the fact that he can, trying out spells that are made simply for fun and not with any sort of purpose in mind. 

He likes doing this just because he can, it being something he’s never really had the chance to do either in class or out of it before. 

Magic is fascinating, and he loves it, loves the extent it can go to, loves that he doesn’t actually need a wand for most things he’s already learnt, doesn’t have to restrict himself to what he can know. He enjoys learning his history, and the way his family was, and the way other families were that married into his own from the books that the goblins gave him. He loves learning now, too, since he is not being forced to learn everything the way everybody else does and it makes him more comfortable that way, much more comfortable. 

Also Salazar and Sirius are much more capable teachers, better at teaching him on the whole than anybody else he’s had before in classes. It not only encourages him to learn but it encourages him to go further, makes him want to go further. 

* * *

Ten days after the task with the dragon, he claims to be tired before setting simple wards around his room and sitting on the bed, taking a deep breath. 

“Tom?” he asks the room, because he can feel that presence here at the moment and he wants to know - _ needs _ to, in fact, more than anything else at the moment. 

For a moment there is nothing, and then - almost like a burst of light in his mind, before a feeling settles in his chest and an almost-there presence seems to rest against his forehead. 

Harry slumps in relief before saying his name over and over again like a mantra. 

“Tom. Tom Tom Tom Tom Tom-” Harry automatically moves his head so it’s facing upwards at the phantom presence of hands at his neck, almost caressing him. 

And Harry cannot help it, cannot help pushing his magic towards the force lovingly, to the extent that he can feel a ghostly breath on his neck in relief. 

“Harry,” Tom breathes back, almost inaudible but he’s there and Harry knows it. 

Harry gets under the covers within minutes, becoming more tired as he pushes more magic towards Tom, unable to not do it as once he started he doesn’t want to stop - wants to help this boy, who became the man who killed his parents, tried to kill him multiple times, but Harry felt close to, felt connected to, felt like they were one in the same - Harry knows it feels right in more ways than one when Salazar calls him Tom’s counterpart, because he felt it before, even at 12, even when Tom was a memory in a diary that Harry cried over destroying. 

He cannot help how close he feels to Tom, how he seems to understand him even when he knows he doesn’t fully. 

The presence feels more solid than it has before as he finally sleeps. 

* * *

Tom seems to be able to speak more after that, even if Harry does need to occasionally give him more of his magic, though he usually does it at night. 

Harry doesn’t have nightmares with Tom around, he’s noticed, but he does get the feeling that something is going to happen. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do, really, but he likes feeling Tom’s presence, especially when it’s in his mind, it just feels nice and comforting. 

He explains to Salazar and Sirius briefly what he can, but he doesn’t know what he’s going to do about it in the long run, not really. So instead he just lets Tom’s presence comfort him, not knowing what else he can do. 

He finds out from Dobby, who was spying for him to find out what he could about the tournament whenever the elf wanted to or was not asked to do a different task, that he was going to be forced into the lake to retrieve a person who meant a lot to him, and he had an hour to complete the task. 

For this, Dobby stole him some gillyweed from Snape’s cupboards, and Harry kept it safely in the study while he waited for the date to arrive, even if the Yule holidays would be a while before the task and there were still a month to go until the holidays. 

Apparently there was also a ball being held for the tournament, which Harry adamantly decided he would not be attending. 

“You could attend much later in the evening, simply appear with no words and observe, let people see you there albeit briefly, and then leave. Those who saw you will likely be shocked and not approach, and those who don’t see you probably wouldn’t believe that you had attended. Just make sure that you can’t be spotted by Dumbledore or any of the other teachers,” Sirius told him. And, it wasn’t a bad plan, so he ordered some new dress robes for the occasion, despite having purchased some of lower quality before term started, but instead, these are going to be styled similarly to his basilisk robes except in acromantula silk, pure white with primarily gold embroidery, although there will be some silver and green detailing as well. 

They would also contain a hood so that he could hide his face, even if people would know who he is, and he already has the high-quality dragonhide boots to go with them in black, a dark contrast to the silvery-white of the robes he would say. 

* * *

Still, it was quite funny, he thought the way that people upstairs in the main Hogwarts building spread rumours about him, some saying that he was just using charms all the time to go around unseen, others saying that he had moved out of the castle and had a spy who would tell him when he was needed - really not that far off truthfully. 

His favourite was that he had been killed just after the results of his name coming from the cup and every time they saw him now it was as a vicious poltergeist who would only appear when ‘summoned’ for some reason. 

He had laughed hard upon hearing it, and admittedly the idea wasn’t a bad rumour to spread and he wished he knew who started it quite frankly. 

He wouldn’t be helping that image with wearing white to this Yule ball after appearing seemingly out of nowhere and not being seen by everybody. 

Maybe he would start wandering the halls like that afterwards, just to creep people out. 

Some people said that they saw him wandering the halls at times, and even though they were lies he would like to see how they react to him actually doing that to others and them freaking out over it maybe? 

He wouldn’t do it but it seemed like something to do if he ever grew bored enough. However, with all that he had access to down in the Chamber, as well as what he actually had to do and research for his estates or the lessons he was taught, he was never really out of things to do. Even if it was just hearing stories about before Hogwarts that were told, they were interesting and he loved hearing about Druids and Merlin - who had, in fact, gone to Hogwarts, but more because the man had accidentally deaged himself and was caught visiting Salazar by Helga, who guilted them both into having Merlin attend - he was put into Slytherin, but he was a third year when he started and he was the one who taught Salazar everything he knew to actually teach so. It was pointless, but he was glad that Merlin had gone down in history the way he did, even if it messed up the timeline of events slightly. 

* * *

Time goes on and nothing really changes, not in Harry’s opinion anyway. 

He makes a small appearance at the Yule ball, mostly Slytherins seeing him more than any other house, but still, it was amusing to see the various reactions. Some of the Durmstrang students saw him and gave him looks full of respect, whereas the Gryffindor students - the ones he could easily identify as Gryffindor anyway - seemed to definitely shy away from him and tried to avoid looking in his direction once they caught a glance that he was there. 

* * *

The second task arrives, and Harry walks to the docks with a jar of gillyweed while wearing the exact same thing he did for the first task, knowing that he didn’t realistically need to change and - again - he could wear whatever he wanted since there was nothing against the rules. 

His basilisk robes were sleek and lightweight, and on top of that they wouldn’t soak up any of the water, though his shirt will that’s hardly an important manner. 

Dumbledore watches him apprehensively, watching him, studying him closely, definitely wary, as if finding out some new information about him. 

It amuses Harry because he doesn’t know what else to say or do, and while he should have expected this kind of reaction, he doesn’t know if it’s been furthered in some way, and Harry would be quite interested to find out. Honestly he’s also interested to find out who is at the bottom of the lake waiting for him, since it isn’t like he can automatically know since he isn’t paying attention to anybody else, hood still pulled up and taking his boots off to place at the side with his socks inside of them in preparation for the transformation. 

He swallows the gillyweed as they begin counting down, stepping into the lake with more dignity than those diving in - although Krum and Delacour did a much more graceful entrance with proper form than Diggory - feeling as the gills appear on his neck, and then sinking lower into the water of the lake. 

With the gillyweed adjusting his body to be able to cope, on top of the heating charms he cast to ensure he was warm enough, he doesn’t have any issue with maneuvering the way he needs to, much easier than if he were still entirely human. 

* * *

Arriving where he needs to be, coming across nothing in his way, he finds four people lined up and tied to rocks - Hermione Granger, Cho Chang, a small blonde girl in a blue uniform he assumes is Delacour’s sister, and one Ronald Weasley. 

Harry rolls his eyes and decides to not bother saving the git, after the way he treated Harry multiple times over the years and Harry’s recent change in attitude, instead simply waiting for others to arrive. 

Soon after Krum snatches Granger, and Diggory takes Chang, leaving Weasley and Delacour. 

He casts a timer to make sure he knows how much time he has left, before coming to the conclusion that Delacour won’t be saving her sister, for whatever reason, so he takes her instead, smirking slightly as he makes his way to the surface, not caring about the reception that he could be about to get. 

* * *

“Where’s Mr Weasley?” is asked as soon as Harry makes his way to the docks and hoists himself up while Fleur and a couple of others help out the younger Delacour sister. 

“What do you mean?” 

“You were supposed to bring him back up,” Dumbledore tells him. 

“Really? I thought that something precious was going to be taken from me, and frankly I rescued Delacour because I know I wouldn’t like for my sister to be down there in the cold and dark all alone if I had one,” Harry tells them. “I have nothing to do with Weasley anymore, why would I care about him being down there?” 

He takes their momentary shock as an opportunity to walk towards the forest’s edge, getting far enough in before calling Dobby to take him to the chamber, knowing he can do everything once he’s down there such as get a warm shower and change his clothes. 

* * *

Again time moves quickly, and Harry barely notices it passing by as he occupies himself with learning more than he has ever thought he could learn, like the rest of this year has been going, and before he knows it, Dobby is informing him of the third task - a maze filled with deadly creatures and he has to make it to the centre of the maze first to win. Apparently, the previous 2 tasks only give indication of what order they’ll be going into the maze, since the person who gets the cup wins overall. 

Harry doesn’t care either way, because he knows that he can win easily if he puts his mind to it. Plus, something really tells him luck will be on his side that night. 

* * *

Tom is even closer than usual when it comes to his presence pressing around Harry before he leaves for the task a few days later, and Harry simply sighs and lets him be near as he walks around the study, reciting each of the curses and hexes that Salazar tells him to, knowing it’s for both their benefits. 

Sirius wishes that he could go with them - Harry decided halfway through the session that Tom may as well come with him, and getting the sensation of being told that Tom wasn’t going to be leaving him anyway - but he knows that he can’t and he knows that if Dumbledore saw him then it would likely be game over for Sirius more than anything else, which is obviously too bad because Harry would like to see the look on the old man’s face at seeing Padfoot. 

* * *

Dobby apparates them - him and Tom - to the tunnel leading to the entrance of the maze, and Harry puts his hood up before walking out, smirk unseen at the reactions on everybody’s faces. 

He’s going into the maze third - he got an average score on his first task, with the foreign headmasters being impressed with his ability, apparently, while Dumbledore and Crouch were unnerved and showed clear dislike for his tactic, marking him down on that alone. And the same for the second task - he did not retrieve his own body (apparently Dumbledore spoke to the merpeople of the lake and had them bring Weasley up) but he did retrieve a body which was not his own and within the time limit - though just barely. 

So, he’s going in third, just barely a point behind Krum, with Diggory going in first and Delacour last. 

* * *

Within the maze he has to answer riddles from a sphinx, get rid of a boggart, obliterate an acromantula, and face off with some blast-ended screwts. He had heard two others got taken out of the maze, but he has no idea who it is left with him, since he hasn’t come across anybody as of yet. 

Tom’s presence is a comfort, but he isn’t honestly making himself known past the warm comforting feeling that Harry gets by being near him. 

He takes a few wrong turns along the way before finally coming to the path with eerie light echoing down it. Harry rather thinks it looks beautiful in a strange way, but it also makes him think of high pitched laughter and a green spelling flying towards him, a discomfort that Tom soothes away with inaudible humming and soothing caresses.

He walks towards it, and has to start running when the hedges begin to narrow at an alarming rate, grabbing the cup as soon as it’s in reach and feeling the strong sensation of portkeying in his gut before landing roughly on cold, wet ground. 

He’s in a graveyard, that much is obvious, and Harry doesn’t even have to look around to know that Voldemort - not Tom - is here (although Tom is here too, he knew). 

Pettigrew is also there and Harry doesn’t know what is supposed to happen, caught a little off guard and allowing himself to be caught unawares and be tied to a grave of some kind. 

Not what he would consider a good time. 

Tom, he can feel, is contemplative but spitting mad at the same time and it’s an amusing, if annoying, combination for Harry to also be experiencing. 

There’s a cauldron, and a potion, and a ritual which requires Harry’s blood - causing him to sneer at Pettigrew the entire time he is nearby, before Harry feels Tom leave him for the most part, to join whatever it is that Pettigrew put into the cauldron. 

He feels his anticipation rising as a dark figure with shaggy hair and blood red eyes steps forward and Harry’s throat constricts in time so he doesn’t give any kind of noise in reaction, though he can’t help the widening of his eyes and the way they rake over the robe-covered body that appeared before him. 

“Hello Harry.” Tom’s voice is deeper than when he was in the diary, though just barely, and it no longer holds that raspy tone that it did when he heard it this past year. 

“Hi,” he manages to say back, though it definitely sounds like his throat has gone dry. 

“Let’s get you out of those ropes, hm?” he asks, but it’s clearly rhetorical as he flicks a wrist and Harry is free, an obvious cushioning charm placed where he fell to his knees. 

“So, uh- what-?” Harry doesn’t really feel the need to finish the sentence and yet the place he was going is obvious. 

“Well, after you destroyed the diary I remained there in the chamber, having nothing really to do until you came back down. Voldemort, it seemed, wanted his body back and used this tournament as a way to get your blood which he needed to complete the ritual just witnessed. He has a spy in Hogwarts - Barty Crouch Jr - who entered you into the tournament and once you showed up to the first task he knew you would continue to go apparently. We obviously spent the year together and you began feeding me your magic, magic which I could, essentially, keep a hold of but which ensured I was able to bond with the body and improve it as I deemed fit, an improvement on the original ritual he didn’t know he could have. We’ve….joined, I guess you could say. I now have all of his memories, including the time he spent as a wraith after your first defeat of him, but I don’t look as old as the years he lived.” 

“How old are you then?” 

“Emotionally and physically I would say twenty-two maybe? Mentally, I have the knowledge of all sixty or so years that I’ve lived.” 

Harry simply nods uncertainly. 

“Now, I think it would be a good idea to get out of here don’t you agree?” 

Tom held out his hand to Harry, despite the lack of space between them indicating the action was unnecessary. 

“I want Siri and Salazar,” Harry told him, before taking his hand wearily. 

“And you shall have them,” Tom promises, before binding Pettigrew and having a rope connected to the rat with it resting in his palm before they all disappeared from the graveyard, much to the displeasure of Harry’s stomach. 

* * *

When they landed he doubled over to stave of the feeling of being sick, and then stood up straight not a minute after Tom carded a hand through his hair, leaning back into it with his eyes fluttering closed at finally being able to feel the sensation to its full effect. 

“Dobby!” Tom called out. The elf popped in and while he looked disgruntled about being called by this unknown wizard, he sensed Harry’s presence here so knew to come. “Bring Sirius, Salazar’s portrait, and the basilisk egg here, along with all of their belongings and anything deemed important, the egg should be due to hatch within a couple of days yes?” Dobby simply nodded after seeing Harry smile at him comfortingly. 

* * *

Sirius arrives with the portrait in his arms less than a minute later, all of their belongings popping up in the minutes afterwards, the last thing being the basilisk egg and the toad incubating it. 

“What am I supposed to call you?” Is the first thing Sirius asks, a valid questions Harry supposes. 

“Marvolo, since that is what I’ll be reintroducing myself into society as,” he says. “Plus, I’ve never liked the name Tom, so Harry, and only Harry, is allowed to call me that.” 

Harry smiles quite smugly even though realistically the others around don’t actually care for what they refer to Tom as, but it still makes Harry smug because it means that he is above everybody else. 

“We need to decide what’s happening next,” is the next thing Sirius points out. “Because Harry just disappeared from the third task with no word so-” 

“I’m not going back,” Harry tells them decisively. 

“And we’re not going to make you,” Tom tells him softly, glaring at Sirius when he seemingly opens his mouth to voice his displeasure about that. “He isn’t going back to that school because he has no need, he can easily self-study here and at a quicker rate than in classes, as he has already proven this year. He could take his OWLs this year and the NEWTs in one or two years if he wished, he has no desire to go back and there is also no real need,” Tom continues, making Harry grin happily at getting his way, causing Sirius to huff slightly but he’s not really upset about it from the looks of it. “Not to mention this way he can cause as much trouble as he wants. Not to mention he’s technically classed as an adult now, what with being entered into the tournament against his will, so that means he has no real obligation to go back, even if he didn’t have the means otherwise to provide for his living expenses. Not that he needs those either realistically.” 

“So no going back to Hogwarts?” Harry checks, grinning. 

“No going back to Hogwarts,” Tom nods, confirming his words, and Sirius huffs again before rolling his eyes. 

“Where are we, anyway?” Harry asks after taking a moment to look around - it doesn’t look like where his dreams took place. 

“We are in Slytherin Castle, it is under numerous wards and is essentially untraceable unless the Lord of the castle at that time requests people through the wards. It is older than Slytherin himself was,” he nods at the portrait. “And it is located in Wales, very far down south however.” 

“Oh, cool. So what are we gonna do now?” Harry asked. 

“I think I might restore Riddle Manor, use it as a base of operations. Probably put it under Fidelius so that the location is removed from those whose memories we don’t want to know where it is. This will be our home, and our home it shall become in time.” 

“Well, it’s already better than anything the Dursleys would ever give me,” Harry comments, knowing he had told Tom about them when he had possession of the diary. 

“Undoubtedly, my dear,” he replied as Harry let go of his hand so that he could turn in circles, admiring and inspecting the room as he moved his eyes around the room and upwards where he could see the staircase going around the room, leaving the centre of the room free to see the edges of the upper levels, even if only vaguely. 

“What else can I do? Aside from study and learn and fly, what else can I do?” Harry asks. 

“What else do you want to do?” Tom asks him, fondly exasperated. 

“Cause mayhem?” Harry grins. 

“You can cause as much as you would like,” Tom says easily, as if it wasn’t even a question, more of an expectation. 

“Sounds fun,” Harry continues to grin, before walking back over to Tom so he can bury his face in his chest. 

Tom rests his head on Harry’s with his arms around his shoulders before he moves Harry to stand beside him, hand moving to wrap around his waist instead. 

“I’m sure you can find a room you like Sirius, and Salazar can find a painting he likes once being attached to the walls. Anywhere you want your frame to be in particular?” 

“Perhaps the office, it depends I suppose.” 

“Dobby, do as he asks, before taking Sirius’ things to the room he chooses,” Harry instructs easily. 

“Tomorrow we can discuss what shall be done in the future about the state of our world, but until then I think it might be best if we get some sleep, alright darling?” Tom says to him once Sirius is up a couple of flights and unable to hear them as easily while Dobby had taken Salazar away. 

Harry nods easily, allowing Tom to take his hand and pull him towards the stairs. “What _ are _ we going to do about the world? There’s so much to do and change, and it won’t exactly be easy, regardless of the money and influence we technically have. And I know I realistically cannot go out very often yet because of what the public and Dumbledore might do. They could force me to attend Hogwarts - I don’t want that.” 

“I have a plan in mind already, I think I know what we can do already, but it’s for the best we wait until tomorrow and you’re much less tired, yes?” 

Harry hums slightly in response, leaning more heavily against Tom as they continue to walk up to the top of the castle, far towards the back. 

Tom had intended to leave Harry in the room across from his, and instead Harry tilts his head, eyes shining with confusion as Tom goes to pull away. 

“We aren’t sharing?” There’s a tinge of hurt in Harry’s voice that Tom couldn’t even think of disagreeing with. 

“Do you want to?” he asks, instead of immediately letting Harry into his room and - more importantly - his bed. 

Harry only nods, so Tom sighs inaudibly at the complications this could cause for the future, but doesn’t deny Harry - since he didn’t want to in the first place. There was a reason he had decided to put Harry in the room across from his own rather than allowing him to choose like he did with Sirius and, technically, Salazar. 

He led Harry into his - now their - room, and went to prepare for bed with the clothing that had been left there fourteen years ago, kept under preservation and freshening charms on his dresser and wardrobes, while Harry called for Dobby to bring his things for him to do the same. 

Being a spirit, again, for the past couple of years had been an experience for Tom he hadn’t expected, but he still had all of his senses in a sense, and he had still been able to see Harry in the same position as he is now, except now he had more awareness of what was actually going on, especially when he felt a stirring in his body, and his heart began beating quicker at seeing Harry in pyjamas that were too large for him - he was adorable, and Tom wasn’t able to deny it at all. Not that he would want to anyway, but regardless. 

Harry made sure to brush his hair before going to sleep these days so it wouldn’t end up worse than usual in the morning and it would be less painful to brush in the morning. 

* * *

Harry woke alone the next morning, unknowing to anything going on around him and taking several minutes to reorient himself in the room since he hadn’t really taken it in last night before falling asleep against Tom’s chest. 

Unknowing to him, something he wouldn’t find out for a while (Tom hoped), was that Sirius had made sure to have a long discussion with Tom that morning when they were both eating breakfast in the “informal” dining room, threatening him about what would happen if he were to go against Harry’s wishes, or even approach him more than chastly before his godson was sixteen - an age he made obvious he still wasn’t happy about, but knew he wouldn’t be able to control Harry much regardless, if he wanted something. 

So, Harry walked in when the pair of them had long since finished their conversation and were sat in a mostly stiff yet still comfortable silence. 

Tom didn’t know if he had expected anything else from the man who wanted to kill Pettigrew so soon after his friends’ deaths. 

Pettigrew, who had automatically been put into the dungeons when they arrived without even needing to be in the main entrance hall. 

“I have some kind of plan for going forward from now on, however we should all discuss it to go over the finer points first before actually doing anything,” Tom announced to them both as Harry sat eating toast, slumped in the seat to Tom’s right, still very obviously tired. 

“Can we talk about this after I’ve eaten?” Harry pouted. 

“Very well, but we will be talking about it as it concerns the guest in the dungeons.” Harry simply looked at him with confusion. “We’ll discuss it later,” he tells him. 

* * *

Breakfast continued until Harry was finished, and he didn’t want to bother getting changed despite the fact that the other two were so they simply went straight to the main office Tom used. 

“Now, I think the best place to start with my plan to discussing getting Sirius free. Since Pettigrew was there yesterday, and currently resides in the dungeons,” Harry made a face of realisation at that, apparently having forgotten he was there at all yesterday, “we’ll be able to hand him over for investigation and a veritaserum trial, which means all information will come out which means that you should automatically be given freedom and have the warnings about your name rescinded,” he directs at Sirius. “Because you’ll be free, you’ll be able to act as a barrier between Harry and the rest of the world until we are sure that he will be left alone. Harry,” he turns to him. “Do you wish to enter the political sphere at all?” 

“No. While I quite like the idea of having things improve, I know for a fact I don’t have the patience for it, nor will I ever develop it. It’s not my thing. I’d rather just tell people what to do,” Harry shrugs, causing Tom to smirk. 

“Very well, once Sirius is free he can arrange for multiple interviews between you and some reputable journalists from multiple publications, so that in the meantime nothing can happen to you with regards to being possibly kidnapped. Not that we wouldn’t come and get you my dear, but it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to you. You attract trouble after all. While you are emancipated and need no legal guardian, Sirius will act within your best interests when it comes to the public and spreading certain information.” 

“What about you?” 

“I was just coming to that: I shall be using this time to come out into the political sphere myself, as Marvolo Slytherin, with the help of the goblins. With this influence I will try to ensure more bills are passed that favour the Dark. There will be the slight issue of how reckless my Death Eaters can be, however I know for a fact the most unstable are in Azkaban. We shall abandon the idea of raids in the meantime, since there is no need for them and I did slightly go off the deep end, one could say, with regards to that.” 

Sirius muttered something under his breath that sounded like “yeah no shit” but didn’t mention anything else at all. 

“Hogwarts will have to be taken in other manners, but not for a year at least. Once everything between the two of you is sorted out, we can make sure that Sirius has control of your political votes and he can join me there, where we can supposedly become acquainted, from there it won’t be difficult to increase our association and public appearances as a group or otherwise.” 

Sirius scoffs under his breath slightly at the end of the phrase, but doesn’t say anything when Tom glares at him pointedly. 

* * *

**Boy-Who-Lived Emancipated: On Living With His Ex-Convict Godfather! **

**Harry Potter: “I know I’m not knowledgeable or patient enough for the Wizengamot, but I trust Sirius without question to vote as I would myself.” **

**Albus Dumbledore Lied To The Wizengamot - Now Under Investigation For Lying About Harry Potter! **

**“I don’t understand why people just listened to him without question, it never made sense,” - Harry Potter Explains Why. **

**“I’m open to all kinds of magic, discriminating against one type is unfair and unbalances magic,” - Harry Potter is a DARK Wizard! **

**"My Familiar is a Dark Creature, why would I discriminate like that?" - Boy Who Lived speaks out on Creature Rights! **

* * *

Many headlines appeared over the following weeks talking about what he wanted to do from now on, his past, his current decisions, and even his speculation about what he will do with his life once he gets older - not that he told them anything yet. And still, there were more that would be coming out in the coming weeks once his results come out, he knows, and once his decisions to not go back to Hogwarts reach ears and quills of reporters. 

Harry kind of looked forward to it, and he was definitely fulfilling his wish to create mayhem - the entire wizarding world seemed to be in disarray every time a new article with his name in it came out, and it made Harry giggle ridiculously every time he heard more and more from Sirius - who was using his new freedom as a free man to go out at every opportunity, giving a few interviews, but more statements, of his own to the press. 

Apparently he liked being able to create mayhem of his own now that he was once again free. 

Tom had fixed up Riddle Manor to make it mildly presentable enough to host meetings with his current Death Eaters to demand reports and be updated on the goings on they have within the ministry, the more so when it pertains to his goals. 

The rest of his year was spent doing whatever he wanted - which honestly meant learning, but even more than that he would go out in the middle of the week for lunch with Tom and/or Sirius once they were sure they would be left alone. 

He would go shopping every week in Diagon almost, buying everything that caught his eye just because he could and nobody would say anything about it. For once, he was becoming what Snape called him: a spoiled brat. 

But Harry loved the freedom to spend the money he had, especially when Tom or Sirius would take him to foreign countries to do the same thing, and show him the sights. Harry especially liked it when Tom would take him somewhere beautiful because it pertained to what he was learning. 

Tom wasn’t his primary instructor of course, that was Salazar, but often Salazar taught him in Tom’s office because Tom enjoyed hearing the noise in the background, finding it too unnerving when it was silent in the office, even if music were playing. Harry liked learning in there because he enjoyed being in Tom’s presence, it made him feel comforted and calm. 

“You’re a horcrux darling, of course you like being close to me physically,” Tom explained. 

“So how do I know my feelings aren’t just because of the horcrux?” Harry asked, pouting. 

“They are two different sources, if you go far enough into your mind you’ll find that the horcrux gives off different emotions to yourself,” Tom continued. 

This led to Tom being Harry’s occlumency teacher so that he could investigate the connection more closely whenever he wanted to. It would give Harry comfort about what were and were not his own feelings, thereby making him more comfortable and confident in them which would only be good in the long run. 

* * *

Tom kept his word to Sirius about Harry and kept it chaste, even when they shared a bed every night and Harry was touching his bare skin once it moved into summer and became too hot for Tom to comfortably sleep with a shirt on, and Harry too it seemed as it got warmer. 

“I’m used to heat,” he explained when asked. “I used to work in the Dursleys’ garden during the summer with no protection and no water when it was at its hottest. But even I have my limits,” he shrugged. 

Which brought Tom back to the gift he wanted to give Harry for his sixteenth birthday. 

* * *

In the past year, Tom was happy to say that Harry had really come into his own when it came to his magic and instincts: as it turned out, he was much more sadistic than anybody had previously thought - the boy himself included. 

His torture of Pettigrew before they sent him off to the auror department was the initial proof of that, and since then it only increased when Tom brought people that he knew Harry may want to torture - although sometimes it was simply muggles, and Harry had no issue destroying them either for no real reason, so he’s looking forward to seeing what his precious darling would do to people who harmed him for so many years and tortured him for their own whims and wants. 

* * *

“Are you ready for your present, Harry?” Tom asked after breakfast on the thirty-first of July 1996. 

“After the amount you’ve given me already this year, I doubt you’d let me object to it,” Harry told him coyly, as if he would reject the gift, but after the first couple of expensive gifts he had given Harry as a part of his plan to court him, Harry had become very open to his gifts and very much enjoyed receiving them, though most of the time they were either some form of jewellery, clothing, or trinket he knew Harry would like. 

Tom held his hand out for Harry to take once he had stood himself up, and Harry placed his hand in Tom’s allowing him to be pulled up gently, and his hand tucked into the crook of the man’s elbow. 

“I’m surprised they made it this far being chaste,” Salazar comments from the painting they had put in the dining room so he could be present with them if he wished. 

“Don’t remind me,” Sirius groaned, leaning his head on the table as the last thing they heard when out in the corridor. 

“Do I get a hint to what you got me?” 

“Do you ever?” Tom replied, causing Harry to pout slightly. 

“I know I always like your gifts, but still.” 

Tom rolled his eyes. “It’s waiting in the dungeons.” Harry perked up slightly at that, wondering who could be waiting for them since it was his birthday - meaning it wouldn’t be just anybody. 

They reached the bottom of the steps leading down to the dungeons, before Tom moved himself behind Harry instead and began leading him forward by the shoulders with a blindfold quickly spelled over his eyes. 

The cells were spelled silent so that the undoubtedly familiar voices wouldn’t give away his surprise to Harry before they reached the cell. 

“Are you ready?” Harry nodded, grinning widely, and Tom could see the fear and panic rolling over the faces of the three prisoners in the cell before them. 

The blindfold was removed swiftly, and Harry gasped at who he saw in the cell before spinning to Tom, jumping up, assuming Tom would catch him - he did - before smashing his lips into the man’s who was holding him, who had no problem with reciprocating the action with passion, only stopping when Harry pulled back for air, both of them panting heavily as they stared into each other’s eyes. 

Harry bumped his nose into Tom’s gently as a sign of affection. “Thank you, this is the best thing you could have gotten me,” he said. 

“Only the best for you my darling. What are you going to do with them?” Tom asked, nodding his head to the cell behind Harry. 

“I’m going to treat them the way they treated me: barely enough food to live, punishments for no reason or for things that couldn’t be helped, and immeasurable pain all of the time. But first, let’s leave them alone for a while yes?” Harry grinned at him with an evil edge to it and Tom knew exactly what he was wanting at this moment. 

Tom sighed theatrically as if it was a chore, before smirking. “Very well.” He apparated them out and they ended up beside their bed so many floors up, and Tom walked back several steps before he was forced to sit on the bed with Harry on his lap, enthusiastically kissing him and trying to move ever closer as if they would mould together if they got close enough. 

* * *

Sirius often left the room within the first two weeks that they had progressed their relationship, since Tom seemed to be taking advantage of the fact he had said sixteen and not seventeen despite the fact that Harry was usually the one to start their encounters - he just enjoyed being so close to Tom as it made him feel more safe and protected than anything else in the world. 

His birthday dinner had had to be postponed until later on in the evening due to the amount of time Harry simply refused to let go of Tom before they were due to their reservations - luckily the restaurant was understanding and had no issues when Tom finally firecalled to say that they wouldn’t be making it for several hours because something had come up, before Harry managed to entice him back into bed by simply laying there and looking at Tom with a smirk on his face, covered in hickies and bite marks but staring at Tom’s scratched up back. 

* * *

Their plans continued to go on spectacularly, and they were able to discredit Dumbledore even more once the school year began once more, having spoken to Bathilda Bagshot, who revealed a lot of information to them that was unknown to the general public before they decided to go ahead and reveal it, adding in tidbits that Tom found out after visiting Grindelwald himself to verify his aunt’s words, even if they didn’t publish that in the articles directly. 

They essentially told every dirty secret that they could of Dumbledore’s before he was removed from the Headmaster position in the school. 

Since accepting his claim on Hogwarts along with Tom in the previous autumn, they were intricately aware of the changes the man had been making to the wards of the castle - multiple to keep out several individuals, and while they found it amusing, they found it incredibly annoying as well, since the man must have some mild of understanding about what was happening with their claiming of Hogwarts. 

Regardless, they were saving the best until last, since it was obvious that the old man wouldn’t be giving in easily. 

* * *

Waiting at the edge of the wards was simple, and Harry didn’t want to wait for Dumbledore to notice them waiting out here, just wanted to go in. 

“We’re not hurting any of the children,” Harry reminds them all. 

“That was one time and I was certifiably insane,” Tom rolled his eyes. 

“It was mostly for them, but you as well. We only want the teachers that resist, and Dumbledore,” Harry reminds, before grinning with a maniacal glint in his eyes before turning to the wards of the castle. 

He could feel them very clearly, and he knew that Tom could too, but that for this moment Tom had passed on his control of the wards to Harry so he could bring them down, allowing them to focus on two things at once, and not leave both of them tired if it came to that. There was sure to be something about the wards, so Tom would channel his magic through Harry to give him more strength. 

“Ready my darling?” Tom asks, and Harry looks over his shoulder for a second so that Tom was able to see his grin. 

“Of course,” Harry said, before holding his hands out until they came into contact with the wards. 

They rippled slightly as Harry put pressure on them magically, only physically pressing down slightly as if to dig his hands in so that he could metaphorically get a good grip on them. 

It was easy to disable the wards of the castle, but the ones cast by Dumbledore, well his control over the castle wards only gave a slight opening to weaken the ones the old man erected, and from there he had to essentially destroy them from the inside. 

It was tiring, and strenuous, and it was difficult to do to the point where he was panting and sweating - not really a state he isn’t used to when with Tom in both the bedroom and duelling room, but regardless, it was different this time, and it was much more like he was in the duelling room for more hours than he was used to. Yes they’d duelled for hours before but that wasn’t directly pulling on his magic and essentially trying to suck it out from his body, a disappointing fact in reality, but he continued as much as he could. 

They were with several aurors and ministry officials, all of whom had been Death Eaters since before their positions were as highly ranked as they were, and what they were doing was theoretically with the full permission of the wizengamot and ministry - because what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, and there would be secrecy wards going up as soon as they entered the castle to stop anybody telling the truth. 

Not that they would really try considering who was in fact here, most likely, as nobody would believe them anyway. Marvolo Slytherin: the epitome of kindness when it came to the well-being of children coming in from the muggle world, who wanted to improve their education system as much as he could, and had recently negotiated a contract between himself and Harry Potter via the boy-soon-to-be-man himself, and his guardian Sirius Black, even though everybody knew it wasn’t legally needed since they could get married regardless. 

Still, Marvolo Slytherin had been in the public eye as a hero of some kind for many months now, and even though in the beginning Dumbledore had tried to dissuade people from listening to him, with no proof to back up his claims, unlike Marvolo and Harry, he had to give up very quickly. 

There was a very obvious magic build-up occuring in Harry’s hands, as they began to glow bright green, the same shade as his avada-eyes, and then cracks of the same colour began appearing along the vaguely transparent wards before the sound of static filled the air and the wards collapsed, the cracks making their way through the wards of their own account once Harry removed his hands. 

He was out of breath but refused to bow over his knees in response to that, simply heaving great breaths and taking a drink from the class Tom conjured for him filled with water to help his dry throat. 

A secrecy ward began going up almost instantly, started by Tom and followed through with by his followers, before Harry began walking towards the castle, erecting the natural wards of the castle back up behind them aside from the Apparation wards, meaning that they could apparate closer to the castle doors. 

It creaked open for them without a word once they approached, as Hogwarts herself recognised her true masters being back to the first place either of them had considered home before when they were younger, even if they had a more permanent one now, which was where Sirius currently was, not wanting to come with them today as he didn’t see the point (although Tom’s balls were forfeit if Tom let Harry get even a scratch on him from the opposing side). 

It was the middle of dinner so that meant that the majority of students, if not all, would be in the great hall to eat, that being the good and easy thing for them because even if the students were not all there then the teachers most definitely would be. 

The door the great hall slammed open as the group walked in, Harry leading them with a malicious grin on his face as he called out, “I’m home~” for no reason other than the fact that he could, before he burst into cackles, startling everybody there except for the group they arrived with. He calmed down easily though, and continued to grin at the headmaster as he staked forward down the middle of the hall, turning once he reached the table to announce to the students there. “As of right this moment, Albus Dumbledore is no longer in charge of this school, and he is being charged with multiple crimes that he has so far managed to get out of, but not for much longer.” He turned to the headmaster and hopped up onto the dais, balancing on the small area between the edge and the table, placing his hands on it to lean forward as the aurors with them came forward down the path as well. 

“Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, you are under arrest for a number of crimes including, but not limited to, making false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements to the Wizengamot with regards to the topic of James and Lily Potter’s deaths, wills, and son, Harry Potter, since October thirty-first, nineteen eighty-one and theft from multiple accounts, including Harry James Potter’s, since November first of the same year, and many others. Be made aware that anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law,” they finished, just as they arrived at the ends of the dais and began to walk around it so that they could put magic suppressor cuffs on him while they transport him.

Before they could get much closer however, the old man jumped up, not even trying to make excuses, before firing off multiple spells that should get him arrested for their usage alone realistically, as if he hadn’t already gotten away with so much, even if they were nonverbal and theoretically could not be accurately said of what they did since none of them hit. 

When he reached for Harry, he hissed a quick parseltongue spell which caused a pillar of green fire to surround him that, when Dumbledore’s fingers just brushed through the flames, turned them back and rotten, but unfortunately it wouldn’t spread much further than where the man had come into contact with the flames. 

“Dare to come closer, Dumbledore?” Harry taunted, walking closer to the man while the pillar remained surrounding him, even as he reached his hand out, encompassing his arm and down his hand for Harry to use as he wished. When it came down to it, he knew he could kill the man just by sending a small shot of the flames towards the old man’s face, but that wouldn’t be satisfying - it would easily and quickly consume and affect his brain, but it wouldn’t be painful, just cause his brain to rot and shut down. He laughed loudly, almost cackling, when the man flinched and stumbled backwards. “I would stay where I was if I were you, old man,” Harry says lightly, taking several steps back and standing casually with his arms crossed but pretending to inspect the nails of his right hand while keeping an eye on him. 

After that it didn’t take long for the man to be put under arrest since he was apparently too afraid of more of his body rotting. No doubt he thought he could get out of this somehow and go back to running his squadron of flaming chickens - never going to happen, but they would leave him that hope until they could appropriately crush it to smithereens. 

They stopped when they were beside Harry as they were escorting the ex-headmaster out of the hall, so that he could quietly talk at the man. 

“You know, for years now there’s been this little devil on my shoulder telling me that I can be whoever I want to be, so after all that I suffered, I want what I deserve, and, y’know what Dumbledore?” Harry paused for a moment in a rhetorical moment as if the old man would reply. “I want to rule the world,” he answered unnecessarily, grinning, cackling as he turned away and folded himself into Tom’s arms once close enough, having extinguished his parseltongue fire moments before speaking to Dumbledore - except for his hand as a warning for the man, which had now been enclosed in his fist as the man was dragged out of the hall, and then school by the aurors under the Dark Lord’s watchful metaphorical eye. He would be going to the ministry and easily be sentenced to Azkaban. . 

“Now,” Tom began, focusing on the teachers left at the table, having watched the entire thing with various emotions flitting across their faces. “Would anybody like to say anything about the new regime we’re going to be implementing in the school?” Tom particularly looked at Mcgonagall, who had been mostly silent this entire time with a slightly pinched expression she was clearly trying to hide throughout. Nobody immediately rejected anything that was being said, but Tom knew that didn’t actually mean anything in the long run, and would be specifically implementing people who would keep an eye on their future attitudes as well as teaching. 

Theoretically, Minerva would be a good headmistress, Tom thought, however if she kept Dumbledore’s morals and ideologies he would have to simply keep her as the Transfiguration teacher, though not necessarily a bad thing. 

“For now, Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall shall be put in as temporary Headmistress, however we can speak to her later as everything is being implemented and then later on.” The look she gave him in response made it obvious that she didn’t approve, and she knew exactly who he was - not a surprise, really - but she wasn’t saying anything like Dumbledore has in the past, meaning that she already clearly has more logic than he did, but that still says nothing for her attitude in the future. 

Nobody would be able to get away with saying Tom was Voldemort, regardless of how true that was, because nobody would believe them, he made sure of it by this point in time, and if it came from McGonagall, then they would simply discredit her as well, which wouldn’t be as easy to do as Dumbledore because he knew already that she simply had less skeletons in her closet than he did, but she supported Dumbledore and from there things could be said and rumours spread. 

* * *

The students had obviously realised at some point that nobody would hear them, but there were several Gryffs looking at Harry with contempt - his old friends in particular - but Harry simply didn’t care, and was happy properly for once in his life; his whole life since Tom had come back properly was everything he could have wanted and more. 

The teachers held no protests as the students were dismissed, though some remained - those with parents who were present mostly, but also his old friends. 

Harry disarmed them before they came close and bound them once he was sure that nobody would see that he didn’t want to. Almost all of the teachers had already left at this point, except for McGonagall and Flitwick, Snape was there too but Harry disregarded him as soon as his eyes glanced over at him, he hated the man no less now than he did when he was here in the school last. 

“How could you?!” Weasley spat at him, clearly angry with his face turning more red as he struggled against the ropes holding him in place. 

“Quite easily, actually,” Harry shrugged nonchalantly. 

“You’re with You-Know-Who?!” Hermione asked and Harry gave a moue of displeasure, scrunching his eyebrows at her in slight exaggeration. 

“How can you say that about my fiancé, Granger? Weren’t we once friends? How can you think I would do that?” he asked, a pout to his face. 

“Because you have, you bastard!” Ron yelled at him, even as he ceased his struggles as much as before, panting from effort. 

“My parents were married, thank you very much,” Harry straightened himself to stand taller. “And regardless, it isn’t any of your business regardless of who you are under the deluded opinion that he is. It isn’t any of your business, and you lost that right as soon as you accepted money from my vaults to report back to Dumbles on me.” 

“We did no such thing!” Weasley protested angrily, but the argument was weak when he knew the truth from the goblins themselves. 

“There’s no point of trying to lie when I know the truth. Records were kept and everything, and we all know how Granger loves records, even if they aren’t her own.” He smirked vindictively at her with eyes slanted in mirth. “After I found out about this, I decided I won’t let anyone take advantage of me ever again, and the anger burned under my skin to a ridiculous level, blood boiling hotter than a fiery sea, I’m sure you can understand.” 

“So you joined You-Know-Who?!” Hermione yelled, having being sat quietly observing himself and Ron while they interacted, but mostly keeping her eyes on the man stood behind Harry calmly, letting him deal with these people however he wanted to since it was within Harry’s wishes to deal with them. 

“There was nothing for me to lose! I was lonely, and friendless! I had Sirius, and I had Salazar! And I knew that he would accept me, any way I am and without judgement. I’d had enough judgement to last me a lifetime,” Harry says, and then with a wave of his hand dismisses them from the hall thanks to the magic of the castle, and they get deposited in their common room sans bindings holding them in place. 

* * *

Harry didn’t know what he had expected from his life after taking Hogwarts, but the amount of time he spent watching over Hogwarts to make sure that everything was being implemented correctly wasn’t really how he imagined it. 

But he had to fill his time without Tom somehow because the man was running for Minister, which kept him much busier than either of them truly expected out of it despite the fact that he was essentially the only real candidate and had secured his position long before announcements for the campaigns came about. 

Everybody loved him still, including Harry, but Tom had said they wouldn’t consider getting married until he had been voted as Minister and things had settled down. It was a fair thing for them to do, wait, but it left Harry bored without much to do other than shop - which had admittedly gotten boring after a certain amount of time in all honesty, when buying new things lost their novelty because it had finally set in that he could get anything that he wanted regardless of the price. 

Realistically all he had to do now was keep an eye on how the students behaved in accordance with the new rules and classes implemented in Hogwarts, check up on the progress of their pre-Hogwarts school for children who either couldn’t afford private tutors and the time to teach themselves, and the new students who were being found before Hogwarts age and given to Wizarding families who fostered and adopted them. 

With the correct funding finally being given and not held back due to prejudices, kids from the less-liked parts of the wizarding world were invited to take classes and catch up on what they needed to know in the future - all of it free of charge, as it should be for those who cannot afford everything needed. 

Despite the fact that current students still had a lot of prejudice towards these students - either because they’re poor and cannot afford as much as other families, or because they were Dark - bonds were formed by the students attending catch-up sessions who also wanted to return in their following years. 

Harry was very happy with everything that was happening so that they could ensure no child was left behind, and they were all given the same treatment as they should have always been given but didn't due to the prejudice of various kinds against them, or just sheer cruelty from Dumbledore in refusing them access at all. And while at first it had been whispered about behind Tom’s back and initially considered an unfit move, they realised just how many people were actually in their wizarding world, even excluding creatures (which Tom was also working on next, but thought to mostly save it until the election was over so he was already in a position of power more than he already is) because instead of there being 20-25 students per year group in Hogwarts, there was easily double - nearly _ triple _ \- that in reality, meaning they had to organise the classes differently than they had been in the past, and hire more teachers for various year groups and of various opinions with regards to the wizarding world, and it was extremely gratifying to see children wanting to learn everything they were being presented with. 

Due to this sort of thing, Tom was very much guaranteed the spot as Minister for Magic and Harry wholeheartedly supported everything that he did with regards to that, even if it meant he had to attend functions and speeches and various social events as the betrothed of the Minister-to-be. 

He wore the Circlet Salazar gifted him to every single one so that, even if he wasn't directly on Tom's arm at that moment, everybody would know not to approach either of them romantically - as if they would anyway, after Harry's backstory came out they wanted him to live his best and happy life, which meant being with Marvolo Slytherin most obviously, and they wouldn't do anything to disrupt their saviour's such obvious happiness, even when they're attracted to one or both of the couple. They're too happy together and anything else would crush them obviously. 

Harry and Tom both found it amusing, although it quickly became less so when one of the braver citizens tried to approach either half of the couple romantically. 

Once all of this was over they would be able to get officially engaged and then plan their wedding to be married. 

Not to say that Harry hadn’t already put much more thought into that than he maybe should have since they were supposed to plan together, but he got bored at times when he was in either of the castles and without Tom, but it reminded him of what was to come in the future, and if they narrowed it down further now then they wouldn’t have as much to think about later, or spend as much time planning the wedding once they got engaged. 

It made Harry happy, so Tom didn’t say anything. 

Thankfully, Dumledore hadn’t been able to escape from Azkaban, and Tom took control of his wand easily, before gifting it to Harry when they felt how it was most active around him. 

They had to wait until Tom was Minister before they could do anything else to punish him for his actions of the past, because while they could probably get away with it at the moment, it would be a much easier cover up when he was in charge of the entire ministry, rather than just having individuals in these different departments. 

* * *

Before their wedding, Harry had arranged to have Tom’s present transferred to their dungeons without his knowledge, as well as keeping almost everybody else unaware of what had happened, using only Lucius with the initial move, and Sirius was waiting for them in the Slytherin Castle - Harry didn’t want to make him go back to the prison, even if the Dementors were on their side. 

Tom had proposed to him as soon as he was up on the stage after his landslide win was announced, asking Harry onto the stage with him before presenting him with the resurrection stone placed into a newly designed ring that was elegant and, unlike the last one, not gaudy in the slightest. Even if the stone was quite large, it didn’t quite look as much with a larger but sleeker, better designed ring. 

Harry maybe started crying before he threw himself at Tom, but if anything it just worked in their favour with public approval. 

It had been six weeks now, and they were getting married in four hours. 

Tom was under the impression that Harry had been getting ready for at least three already when he’d really been with Lucius, taking Dumbledore from his cell. The old man was under the impression that he was being rescued by a Harry who was no longer under Voldemort’s control, because apparently he had a lot of bad memories for the Dementors to bring forward and had been left rather without his wits and ability to think or properly remember. 

Instead the old man was transported to the dungeons of Slytherin Castle, where Sirius had been keeping everybody distracted about his disappearance - aside from Narcissa, since she was the one taking care of Harry’s looks for the ceremony.

They made sure that he couldn’t get out, even if he woke up from being knocked out and then having a potion directly fed into his stomach to keep him quiet and unaware since it would force him to sleep. 

* * *

Narcissa fussed over him easily and he enjoyed it, even as she told him off for going somewhere that was so bad for his pores right before his wedding, ensuring to begin steaming his face so she could clean them out properly to leave him with supposedly perfect skin. 

“You definitely inherited Lily’s skin quality pup,” Sirius said, from where he was sat to the side and staying out of Narcissa’s way. “James went through a very nasty phase during puberty where even if they weren’t bad, he would have pimples every day. From what I’ve seen you haven’t had one, and neither did Lily.” 

“He’s very blessed in that aspect, I had to use so many cosmetic spells and products to make sure I kept my skin clear it was insane,” Naricissa commented lightly before rubbing hydrating products into Harry’s skin. 

* * *

Sirius walked Harry down the aisle, Harry unable to stop grinning as he saw Tom standing at the end in his emerald green robes with silver accents, a mirror of Harry’s Harry’s primarily silver robes with emerald green accents. 

Their hands were fastened with bright blue and green ribbons, and Sirius tied one of his own for them - red. 

Stability, nurturing, fertility, strength, home, hope, courage, protection, prosperity, inner peace, passion, vibrancy, happiness, peace, balance, growth, abundance. 

So many things were said with their ribbons that they wanted without speaking, only talking of their love in their vows, how they would be lost without one another, how they are each a half of the other. 

Harry felt himself almost lift off the ground from sheer happiness alone when they finished the hand-fasting ceremony and were able to kiss. 

Not that they hadn’t done much more before but it was the fact that they hadn’t done it as a married couple, as husbands. Nothing had realistically changed within their relationship now, and they wouldn’t have split before, but there was nothing more peaceful than being able to feel their souls connected through more than just a horcrux - they were intertwined now on more than just a base level, and Harry was sure he would float away with giddiness for the longest time. 

They had married on the cliff beside their castle, and only their most important people were present - Narcissa, Lucius, Draco, Barty Crouch Jr (much to Harry’s surprise), and Sirius of course. 

They were all that were needed for the ceremony, and the others were all waiting inside for the bigger celebration, although before that: 

“I have something to show you.” 

“And what would that be, love?” Tom asked Harry and Harry felt his insides flutter even after all the times he had been called that by Tom. 

“Your wedding gift. You can see it now but not use it until tomorrow,” Harry explained, not bothering to unfasten their hands as he apparated them straight down to the dungeon, where Dumbledore was still unconscious. 

“Your wedding gift, my beloved,” Harry said, taking half a step away to give a half-bow, theatrically exaggerated of course. 

“You have outdone yourself my darling,” Tom told him, and Harry stepped closer and leaned up to place a kiss on Tom’s cheeks. “But we can deal with him tomorrow, for now we have a celebration to attend.” 

Harry grinned as he was held close and they apparated upstairs to the upstairs landing of the ballroom which overlooked their audience. 

Their guests had been mingling until the telltale sound of apparation alerted them to their entrance and quickly noticed them upon the balcony, where everybody except those who attended their ceremony got down on one knee with their heads bowed as a sign of respect, while those in attendance only bowed their heads as they made their way down. 

Nobody who was not a Death Eater or did not view the Dark Lord as the Dark Lord was invited, meaning that they had no worries to fear from anybody since the newest recruits weren’t invited as it was. Only the people who had been under Tom’s rule for so long. 

Everybody gave their well wishes once they were allowed to stand, as a group and then individually as Harry and Tom made their way around the room together to speak to their guests, rarely bringing up work since now was obviously not the time. 

Their hands remained fastened together for the entire night as they refused to stray far from one another, but nobody seemed to think anything was strange. 

* * *

They finally let the ribbons fall when they made it to their bedroom late into the night - or early into the morning depending on how you looked at it. 

“I shall enjoy my wedding gift tomorrow, the same as you I imagine as that is when it is due to arrive, but for now I would like to enjoy my extremely beautiful and ethereal husband on our wedding night,” Tom told him, carefully stroking his knuckles down Harry’s cheek, causing him to close his eyes and lean into the feeling, no matter how familiar it was to him, keeping them close as he relaxed into the kiss Tom pressed into his lips, taking a breath to speak again when Tom pulled away barely a hairsbreadth. 

“That sounds like a plan, dear husband-mine,” Harry told him, before Tom pushed Harry’s outer robe to the floor. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed, I enjoy constructive criticism, however if you're just gonna tell me you didn't like the story because of something mentioned in the tags then don't bother???? because it was in the tags????? if not then tell me to put it in the tags if you feel it needs the tag and I'll change it, but other than that I hope you liked it, maybe I'lll write a sequel but probably not. Honestly these types are my favourite kind.


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